1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally wire harnesses, and in particular to molded lamp socket assemblies attached to wire harnesses.
2. Related Art
Many vehicles, industrial applications, and commercial applications use a variety of wiring harnesses. These wiring harnesses are typically specialized for a specific application, and thus, each wiring harness design is typically different. As such, it is difficult, if not impossible, to create a uniform wiring harness suitable for all the different applications, such as for powering traditional applications, including lighting systems of a vehicle. For example, each vehicle may have different lighting locations, different distances between lighting locations, as well as different routes along which the wiring assemblies must run, thereby establishing varying lengths of the wiring assemblies as well as distances between terminals in the wiring assemblies. In addition, each wire in each of the wiring assemblies typically needs to be spliced and taped or epoxied into a wiring connector of the assembly. Further yet, the wires are typically wrapped with heat shrink tubing to secure and seal them with the wiring connector. Given the different locations of the lighting between different models of vehicles, and the numerous locations of splices followed by taping, epoxy, and/or heat shrink wrapping, it has been difficult, if not impossible, to automate the assembly of wiring harnesses. As such, the manufacture and assembly of wiring harnesses and the later installation of wiring harnesses into vehicles is labor intensive and relatively costly.